Tuesday’s Kelly advisory board meeting could be its last
Robert Alvarado, a longtime resident of the so-called “Toxic Triangle” and community activist in his front yard last year. When Air Force officials earlier this year floated the idea of dissolving the community advisory board overseeing cleanup at Kelly Air Force Base, several community members and scientists engaged in the effort decried the action as…
‘Unfinished Spaces’: a rocky affair between art and the Cuban Revolution
What role does art play in a nation’s identity? How do architects help shape that identity? And how should the state be involved? These are the questions asked by Unfinished Spaces, a documentary airing this Friday on VOCES, the PBS Latino arts and culture series. In 1961, shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and…
Pick of the Day: SOLI Chamber Ensemble: “Hot Off the Press”
San Antonio’s premiere chamber ensemble opens its season with the debut of three new commissions — RagOut for four by Peter Farmer, Three Portraits by Elliott McKinley, and Moving On by Erich Stem — in a program that also features Diego Vega’s Divertimento and Libby Larsen’s Rodeo Queen of Heaven. $10-$20; 7:30pm Mon, Oct 8; Gallery Nord, 2009…
Stak to the Future
The NBA’s version of the first day of school, aka Media Day, took place at the San Antonio Spurs practice facility earlier this week with a lighthearted tone in the air. Tim Duncan made fun of Tony Parker’s summer goggles, Tony cracked on a TV sports reporter’s hair, and members of the media took turns…
Pick of the Day: Síclovía
Named after the Spanish word for “bike path,” Ciclovía emerged from Colombia, where cyclists and the general public have been making recreational use of closed-off city streets in Bogotá, Cali, and Medellin every Sunday since 1976. The concept has caught on slowly but surely with similar events popping up everywhere from Peru to New Zealand.…
Gary Clark Jr., the hottest bluesman alive
Just like when he’s on the stage, 28-year-old Gary Clark Jr. doesn’t talk much on the phone. It’s as if he’d rather be playing or writing songs, almost as if embarrassed to talk about himself. He’s courteous and sweet, but everything he tells me sounds like a “Dude, just listen to the music.” I have.…
Pick of the Day: Huevos Rancheros Breakfast Gala and Silent Art Auction
Founded in 1993 by the late arts advocate Manuel Castillo along with revered local artists Juan Miguel Ramos and Cruz Ortiz, San Anto Cultural Arts operates the nation’s only full-time, year-round community-based mural/public art program. Annually, SACA honors two individuals “for their contributions to the artistic and cultural vibrancy of San Antonio” at the Huevos…
San Antonio Local Publishes ‘Schizophrenic Messiah’
An apocalyptic tale set in modern day New York City, “Schizophrenic Messiah” is the debut novel from San Antonio native Marcos Lerma. The text ambitiously grapples with the consequences of divisive politics, post-9/11 cynicism, and the Bible. At the heart of the story is Jacob, who moves to Queens with his aunt after his mother…
Pick of the Day: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
In a move it’s safe to say playwright/screenwriter/actor Richard O’Brien approves of, the Woodlawn has tapped RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sharon Needles to slip into the fishnets of Dr. Frank N. Furter. A former member of the Pittsburgh-based troupe The Haus of Haunt, Needles favors a dark dramatic style Lady Gaga has praised via Twitter.…
Two by William Owen
This week we have two from author William Owen. Though they’re quite different on the face of it, the focus on the flow of the language brings them together. The first, Flower Sermons, captures the lilt of two characters while the second, For Gluons and Gravitons catches the musical language right out of composer’s head.…
Max Thieriot gets creepy for ‘The House at the End of the Street’
Max Thieriot stars as Ryan in the thriller “The House at the End of the Street.” In the thriller The House at the End of the Street, actor Max Thieriot (My Soul to Take) plays Ryan, a young man who is the sole survivor of a heinous crime committed in his home years earlier. When…
Beware flying buses
We here at the Current don’t typically get bogged down in the afternoon traffic report. But when short buses start dropping from the sky, we take notice. This afternoon a student and two SAISD staffers were injured when their bus crashed through the I-37 guardrail downtown, taking a 15 foot nosedive onto the sidewalk outside…
Failure of our two-party system apparent in Obama-Romney debate
By Winslow Myers What Winston Churchill said in 1947 about democracy (“Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried”) might apply as well to our two-party system in the United States. It prevents the fragmentation we see in parliamentary systems that have to expend so much energy…
Pick of the Day: The Man Who Planted Trees
Words like “enchanting,” and “captivating” crop up in reviews of Edinburgh, Scotland-based Puppet State Theatre Company’s theatrical adaptation of Jean Giono’s ’50s-era allegory The Man Who Planted Trees. Set in France between 1910 and 1947, the tale follows a hiker who happens upon Elzéard Bouffier, a shepherd who lives alone with his dog and is…
State rejects GEO’s bid to manage psych hospital
What exactly was it that tanked the GEO Group’s proposal to take over management of the Kerrville State Hospital? Was it the patient found dead in a scalding bath at a GEO facility in South Florida, his body discovered with skin “sloughing” off his face? The rehab programs at GEO’s Montgomery County psychiatric facility,…
Pick of the Day: Stolen Babies
Rising from the ashes of the 12-member troupe The Fratellis, Los Angeles-based Stolen Babies spin an array of influences including Oingo Boingo, Mr. Bungle, and silent-era German expressionist films into a chaotic frenzy that’s been pegged as “quirky-prog-pop-art-rock-avant-garde-cabaret-metal-horror-punk with a tinge of industrial, goth, and dark wave.” Comprised of lead singer/accordionist Domique Lenore Persi, bassist/guitarist/programmer…
Mrs. Howl thanks fans after a year in SA
Mrs. Howl is having the time of their lives. Who can blame them? In a little more than a year, the Dallas transplant (Laurel Dagger on guitar, Chelsea Dagger on vocals, and SA’s Alfonso Mata on drums) has released Lovie and a Yellow Lamp (co-produced by Girl in a Coma’s Nina Díaz and Phonolux’s Art…
InterPlay: Mechanical Objects
"Don’t touch the art!" It’s a caution we’ve heard since childhood, along with admonitions to speak softly while visiting museums, where — in seeming paradox — an alarm shatters the church-like quiet if you get too close to an exhibit. It’s serious stuff, art, made for looking at from a respectful distance. The rarified aura…
Chipotle's challenge: Conscientious chain still struggles in the land of 1,000 carnitas
In a supplement to a recent issue of Esquire, there was an article titled "America’s Most Inspiring CEOs." Among the titans of industry touted was Steve Ells, not yet a name with the recognition of a Jobs or a Gates. And yet Ells is the honcho of 1,300 seemingly very successful restaurants. Give up? Chipotle…
Jamaica Jamaica Cuisine shines bright on Austin Highway
Mention Jamaica even once to a music buff and reggae, rocksteady, and ska should spring to mind. Say the same to a foodie and jerk’s the inevitable image. Though I have paid homage to the music at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaican food also pulls my chain. And at Jamaica Jamaica, a bright…
'Aphrodite and the Gods of Love' intoxicates at SAMA
San Antonio already possesses one of the choicest collections of classical art in the country, on permanent display in the lovely Ewing Halsell Wing of the San Antonio Museum of Art. But it’s a testament to exceptional leadership (and exceptional taste) that it has also nabbed the only non-coastal mounting of the touring exhibit "Aphrodite…
Want to see The Heroine for free? Here's how
If you think the ticket price for Sunday’s Kiss Fall Fest at Sunken Gardens is a little steep, you’re not alone. But there is something you can do if you and nine of your friends want to get in for free: 1. Share the link facebook.com/theheroinerock as much as you can until Friday. 2. Have…
'Pitch Perfect' soundtrack outshines the film
A mix between the cheerleading comedy Bring it On and the TV series Glee, Tony Award-nominated director Jason Moore’s debut film Pitch Perfect will cater mostly to indiscriminate teenagers looking for a few laughs. It does, however, have a surprising mean streak, which makes sense if considering Moore’s past work on Broadway. As head of…
Does a rash of theater closings in Tokyo spell doom for American cinema?
There’s always been a degree of mythmaking when it comes to just how far Japan is ahead of us, technologically and culturally speaking. When I was a kid, eagerly awaiting the release of Super Mario Brothers 3, word around the schoolyard was that kids in Tokyo were already playing Super Mario Brothers 5. Of course,…
Elliott Smith: 'Alternate Versions From Either/Or'
We grant a certain leeway to those who feel the absence of a departed musician so intensely that any scrap of listenable material he or she left behind becomes cause for, if not celebration, well-deserved remembrance. Tupac, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Nick Drake, Selena. Such leeway is unneeded, however, to drink up the most recent…
Newsmonger: DiGiovanni ethics breakdown, War on Planned Parenthood hurt family planning in Texas, Radioactive waste en route from Vermont to Texas
DiGiovanni ethics breakdown Did Deputy City Manager Pat DiGiovanni grease the wheels at City Hall for a developer who just helped him land a new job? According to City Manager Sheryl Sculley, Mayor Julián Castro, and a department staffer who spoke before Council to ease their worries last month: no. But the circumstances leading up…
Bargain bubblies at 20nine Restaurant
In my mind, happy hour is about two things: value and the consequent goad to try new things. If you’re bubble-curious, for example, the place to go is 20nine Restaurant & Wine Bar on Thursdays when all sparkling wines are 50 percent off. At the extreme end of the list, this means a bottle of…
Old Boxcar becomes Branchline Brewing
In May, Jason Ard wrote a blog entry on his Tumblr site for Old Boxcar Brewing Co. He was impressed by the rising-tide-floats-all-ships camaraderie and esprit de corps of those gathered at the annual Crafter Brewers Conference in San Diego. As an observer at the past four gatherings, I can tell you the conference is…
'Chicken with Plums' a story of a fiddler and his truth
To understand why Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, who brought Iranian émigrée Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis to the screen in 2007, call their latest collaboration Chicken with Plums, you have to wait until more than half of the story unfolds. And to understand why Nasser-Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric) resolves to die, you have to…
'The Queen of Versailles': How David Siegel ruined the world and then got screwed himself
Lauren Greenfield won two documentary directorial awards at Sundance this year for her fascinating portrayal of David and Jaqueline Siegel, billionaires building the biggest (or second biggest, depending on whom you ask) house in America: a 90,000-square foot Versailles-inspired palace in Orlando. The director gained incredible access to their regular day-to-day life in their smaller…
¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Dear Mexican: Why do so many Chicanos claim to be Aztec? — Chicano stuck in leavenworth Dear Gabacho: You’re right. The beaner love for everything Aztec mostly stems from the Chicano Movement, which appropriated various Mexica iconography (the stylized United Farm Workers black eagle, the concept of Aztlán, the airbrushed paintings of warriors and scantily…
Langton Drive, a love story
It was love at first sight. Newcomer Langton Drive hooked me from their very first shows. They’re supposed to be a punk band, but they always made me feel they were something else, and when I heard "509" (written on May 9, the day Obama announced his support for gay marriage), arguably the weirdest song…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "In a full heart there is room for everything," said poet Antonio Porchia, "and in an empty heart there is room for nothing." That’s an important idea for you to meditate on right now, Aries. The universe is conspiring for you to be visited by a tide of revelations about intimacy.…
Tadros blends world's music to create a sound all her own
Singer-songwriter Aly Tadros is not unlike the authentic vihuela she once drove 12 hours across Mexico to find. The Laredo native has led a nomadic life, leaving Texas at 17 to travel between Spain, Turkey, and her father’s native Egypt, soaking up the different languages and cultures. Later, when she was living in Barra de…
Pick of the Day: The Hood Internet
After gracing stages in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Denton, the Chicago mash-up kings known as The Hood Internet are poised to make their San Antonio debut with a proper album in hand. The duo of Aaron Brink (aka ABX) and Steve Reidell (aka STV SLV, pronounced “Steve Sleeve”) bonded five years ago over a mutual…
